ENDLESS LOVE
by crankyhermit
Summary: Love needs no rhyme or reason, and death itself cannot part those who love truly. SanzoHakkai. Complete.
1. prologue

This is my first real love story, so please be kind! Not betaed because it's a surprise birthday pressie for chibiBritney-chan! (I know it's not your birthday, that's why it's a surprise!) To MSGena, who provided inspiration and wrote most of Chapter 1, and PurpleBarbie, for lots of encouragement, Thank You!!! 

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ENDLESS LOVE  
by Princess X-S Moonshyne

**Prologue: The end of the world**

It was a dark night, not yet stormy, but the breathless humidity of the torpid tropical air pressed on them no less than the urgency of their mission, compelling them onwards, bringing them nearer, nearer to the end of their long quest. So close to completion... soon, soon they would be freed from the geas* laid upon them so long ago by the goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu. Free to go their own separate ways once more...

From the heated argument taking place in the back, which was rapidly degenerating into a shoving match, the stupid monkey and the kappa obviously had no concern about the danger they were fast approaching, nor any inkling of the implications should their mission succeed.

Sanzo looked at Hakkai's face, visibly pale and drawn even through the cover of darkness. They dared not stop, so close to the enemy's stronghold, yet they were certainly in no condition to fight now. Hakkai met his eyes, and a wordless understanding passed between them: It will not be over. They would not allow it, though they had come to the conclusion, early in the journey, that they really could not afford more distractions than already provided by their companions and the enemies they would encounter along their way. Emotional attachment was inevitable, of course, but they were both accustomed to masks, and it would not be seen and used against them. But once the quest was done with...?

Just as he was about to order Hakkai to pull over so they could find a place to rest before the final great confrontation, one of the fool combatants in the back -- he was not sure which -- gave a sharp yelp and fell forward, crashing into Hakkai, who lost control of the wheel, then they were all plummeting down the side of the deep canyon, Jeep screaming, and he knew no more. Their quest was ended.

It was over.

And the demons, safe in their castle, continued with their plans to revive Gyuumaoh until a few months later, a large meteorite blazed a bright trail through the sky to explode into the castle with the force of a hydrogen bomb or two, or maybe a really large volcano erupting from underneath, though it could have been a volcano triggered by the impact, and ashes covered the land for miles around. Nothing was left. So their lives, and deaths, didn't really matter after all. It was only a matter of time.

The threat to the world had ended, and everything went back to the way it had been before. People began to pick up the pieces of their lives that had been shattered by one woman's terrible dream, and in time, learnt to live with each other again, though humans and demons would perhaps never associate with each other as easily as they had before.

Thus closes this chapter of history.

**end prologue**

* Belated realisation re **geas**: this word is not as common as I thought. In fact, it's not in most dictionaries, but you can look it up at these urls.  
Geas (also spelled Geis)  
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geas  
www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990805

Wah! I killed Sanzo and Hakkai! And the others too! But don't worry, they'll all come back in MSGena's Chapter One! Yes, the prologue is very short, but the next chapter will be longer, I promise!

*****

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Sneak preview!  
From **Chapter One: An Arranged Marriage** by MS Gena   
With lyrics from the song 'Dear Diary' in Britney Spears' album, **Oops, I did it again**.

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It was love at first sight. The moment she looked into his sparkling algae green eyes, Sanzo knew there would never be any other for her. She felt a song rising in her heart, and resisted the impulse to sing it aloud, though the words:

_Dear diary   
Today I saw a boy   
And I wondered if he noticed me   
He took my breath away   
  
Dear diary   
I can't get him off my mind   
And it scares me   
'Cause I've never felt this way_

ran through her mind even as he spoke. "My name is Hakkai," he said in a voice soft as the summer wind. Tenderly, he raised her chin with strong, graceful fingers to look in her face and make sure she was well. "Are you hurt, my lady?" he asked.

_Oh, dear diary..._

*****

Want me to write more quickly? Please review!


	2. An Arranged Marriage The First Meeting

As always, please read and review! 

ENDLESS LOVE

Chapter One: An Arranged Marriage. The First Meeting.   
Collaboration between Princess X-S Moonshyne and MSGena   
Visit MSGena at imladris.nu/claudio/instasue.html

Princess Sanzo wished very much that she wasn't a princess.

It wasn't that she didn't love her adoptive mother, Queen Koumyo of Chou'An, but sometimes, the young princess did wish, just a little, that the Queen had not gone fishing at the Kappa River with her hook-less fishing rod on that one fateful day. Then a crazed turtle would not have snapped the Queen's slipper and swum off with it downstream, and she would not have chased it and found the screaming baby floating in a basket.

The baby was named Princess Xanthippe (because the Queen thought the baby's shrill wail sounded a lot like the trademark keening battle-cry of the lead character in her favourite play by the Highly Doubtful Theatre Troupe, Xanthippe, Amazon Warrior Princess) - Sally (because she always wanted to have a daughter named Sally, and besides, it sounded very warlike - "Sally forth, brave knights!") Moonshyne (because it's just pretty), but usually everyone called her Sanzo for the three very rare and valuable bottles of Unequivokal 100 proof vodka hidden in the basket under the baby blanket, diapers and a tin of milk powder.

To return to the topic, Princess Sanzo wished she had been adopted by anybody else, or not found at all. 

Sanzo sighed heavily as she threw her velvet cloak to the floor. Feisty anger flashed in her grape-jam coloured eyes. "Curse you, Mother!" she muttered to herself under her breath. "An arranged marriage! How could you do this to me... your only daughter! Have you no care for my happiness?" She flopped over onto her soft satin-sheeted bed and glanced around at the empty room. Tears began to flood her eyes and roll softly down her porcelain cheeks. "I cannot marry another," she said in a voice no louder than a whisper. "I cannot, for my true love is Hakkai."

Standing, Sanzo walked solemnly to the window that overlooked the city of Chou'An. The sun was just setting for the night, casting a golden glow over the countryside. But the beauty of the scene touched not Sanzo's heart, for it was saddened by the news that had been given to her only hours before. She was to be married to Goku, who was a close personal friend of her mother's. She had been given no say in this matter - it was arranged behind her back. And there was no turning away from it now. Tomorrow, she would leave for Flower Fruit Mountain to meet her future husband. And the day following, they would be wed. 

Sanzo clutched at the windowsill until her knuckles turned white, and she wept bitter tears. How could this be happening? All her life, she had been happy and carefree, and now this trouble... What had she done to deserve such a fate? Slowly, and with the blur of tears still in her vivid grape-jam coloured eyes, she paced about her bedroom. All she could think of now was Hakkai, and how the news would break his heart if only he knew.

They had met two summers ago in a random village, when Sanzo had gone for a ride in the country with her mother and sisters. But when Sanzo had strayed off the path to follow an adorable baby Jeep, she had become separated from her family and hopelessly lost. Then out of nowhere a band of demons had appeared to attack her. By some stroke of luck, she happened to have the Exorcist Gun that Queen Koumyo kept to ward off the usual castle spooks hidden secretly within the folds of her skirt. But though she managed to kill 998 of the foul creatures, she was soon outnumbered. 

Then just as she thought her life would be ended, a beautiful dream-like vision appeared before her. The deadly warrior who had come to her rescue, a handsome demon who just happened to be wandering the countryside eating an apple, quickly killed off the remaining 101 demons with his fruit knife before rushing to Sanzo's side. 

It was love at first sight. The moment she looked into his sparkling algae green eyes, Sanzo knew there would never be any other for her. She felt a song rising in her heart, and resisted the impulse to sing it aloud, though the words:

Dear diary   
Today I saw a boy   
And I wondered if he noticed me   
He took my breath away   
  
Dear diary   
I can't get him off my mind   
And it scares me   
'Cause I've never felt this way

ran through her mind even as he spoke. "My name is Hakkai," he said in a voice soft as the summer wind. Tenderly, he raised her chin with strong, graceful fingers, sticky with demon blood and apple juice, to look in her face and make sure she was well. "Are you hurt, my lady?" he asked.

Oh, dear diary...

"No," she replied. In truth, there was a bad cut on her knee, but she didn't want to worry Hakkai. "And my name is Sanzo." 

"Sanzo," Hakkai repeated. He said the name as if savouring the sound of it on his tongue. "That is a beautiful name, fit for so beautiful a lady."

Sanzo blushed shyly. She could feel his eyes wandering over her body, from head to foot, as he took in the sight of her lying on the grass. She knew she was beautiful. Unusually so, some said. It was believed her father was a particularly handsome horny kappa of the muddy Kappa River, known for his womanising ways, while her adoptive mother, Queen Koumyo, was renowned for her impeccable dress sense and poise, though her smoking and drinking habits, among other eccentricities, could do with some improvement. The blending of Nature and Nurture came together perfectly in Sanzo, giving her an exotic look that few males found they could resist. Large downward-sloping bright grape-jam coloured eyes were framed perfectly by shimmering waves of thick french-fry yellow hair that fell to her waist. An antique barnacle-encrusted mithril pendant hung ever from her slender white neck, accentuating the delicate frame of her collarbone.

Sanzo only wished she had thought to wear her favourite sexy black form-fitting leather bodysuit that morning.

Suddenly, Sanzo and Hakkai were interrupted by a wild cry that signified more demons still lurked nearby. "Come," said Hakkai as he hurried Sanzo to her feet. "It is not safe to linger here. You must come with me, and hurry!" Taking Sanzo's hand, he hastened away from the sound. Sanzo did her best to keep up with him, but the pain in her knee was too great. 

"My lady!" gasped Hakkai when he saw her lagging behind. "You are injured!" Immediately he sat her down to examine the wound. Blood had already started to soak through her gown in an ugly red stain. "I must tend to this wound now as best I can," he said. "We will find a healer later, but for now this cannot wait." Without a second thought, he pulled off his green bandanna and wrapped up her knee efficiently. 

With this makeshift bandage in place, Sanzo and Hakkai were able to hurry on their way. The cries of demons were ever-present behind them, but they ran swiftly. Soon, Sanzo found herself in front of a small cabin, which she guessed must belong to Hakkai. He held the door open as he stepped inside, beckoning for her to follow him. "Come in," he said. "We will be much safer in here."

Sanzo took a deep breath as she stepped toward the cabin door. Here she was, a young virgin noblewoman, about to be alone in a cabin with someone she had just met. It was true he was the most handsome demon she had ever seen, and he had just saved her life, but were his true intentions that noble? And what would her family, especially Queen Koumyo, say once they found out where she had been? And how the maids would gossip! Sanzo had half a mind to run back home right then, but as she heard the clamour of demons drawing nearer once more, she realised she had no choice. She steeled her will and followed Hakkai into the cabin, shutting the door firmly behind her. 

_To be continued...?!!_

Lyrics to Dear Diary from Britney Spears' album Oops I did it again.


	3. Hakkai's House Secrets are revealed

Replies to reviews at the end. Thanks for reviewing! =)

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ENDLESS LOVE

Chapter Two: Hakkai's House. Secrets Are Revealed.  
By Princess X-S Moonshyne

Sanzo looked around as Hakkai closed and bolted the door. The interior of the cabin was neatly kept and pretty, furnished in pastel shades with tasteful paintings and colourful furniture. It was like something out of an Ikea catalogue, complete with a vase full of tastefully arranged half-wilted wildflowers on the violet coffee table. She sighed with relief as she sank down onto a bright lime-green sofa and propped her injured leg up on the violet coffee table.

"Do you like it?" asked Hakkai anxiously, though it wasn't clear what exactly 'it' was. "Would you like some tea? Or-" he fumbled in a sky-blue cabinet in the corner and fished out a dusty bottle, "some vodka I distilled myself?" Sanzo smiled at his patent eagerness to please, and thought _This is much better than-_

Before she could wonder what this was better than, there came strange squeaking and scratching sounds from the chimney. Hakkai winced momentarily, and affected a studied expression of "What? I heard nothing, nothing at all!" innocence.

"What is that- Oh!" she exclaimed in delight as Hakkai thrust a fistful of tangled wildflowers before her. She lifted it to her delicate little nose and inhaled deeply before she choked and flung the flowers away, then found the strength to rise to her feet and kick Hakkai in the shin. "What do you mean by giving me these stinky weeds, you cheap idiot?! What?!"

"oof- but I picked them because they're wildflowers, dear Sanzo, as artless and untamed as you- OW!" he yelped as Sanzo screeched with fury and kicked him again, hopping in pain due to her injured leg, then found a newspaper which she promptly rolled up and started smacking him with.

"ARE YOU SAYING I SMELL? WHY YOU MASS-MURDERING SON OF A VACUUM-STOMACHED MONKEY!"

Hakkai snarled and dodged around the coffee table. "Will you stop hitting me, you sociopathic daughter of an alcoholic chain-smoking kappa?!"

Sanzo gasped and dropped her newspaper. "How did you know? I never met him, so I never knew what my father was like." She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. 

Hakkai came to her cautiously and took her slim white hands in his, wiping her nose with a clean white handkerchief. "It just seemed right that your father would be someone like that." He winced again as the squeaking and scratching noises from the chimney grew frantic, then a soot-blackened lump dislodged itself from the chimney into the fireplace and coughed up several sparks, letting out a pitiful _kyuu_.

"Oh, a little baby Jeep! You're so cute!" cried Sanzo, picking up the miniature dragon and dusting it off to reveal shining white scales. She planted a little peck on its nose, making it blink in consternation and look to Hakkai for guidance. "Wait," she said, looking from the little Jeep to Hakkai and back again. "This is the Jeep I saw in the woods, that led me to the horde of demons." 

Hakkai endeavoured to look innocent. "It must have followed you here. I can't imagine what it would be doing here otherwise." The Jeep _kyuu_-ed in protest at the betrayal, and struggled to get free from Sanzo's slackened clutches. It flew to perch on Hakkai's shoulder, staring at her indignantly. He scratched the little Jeep's chin reflexively, and looked thoroughly guilty.

"You set me up," Sanzo whispered in horrified dawning realisation. "You deliberately led me into an ambush, so you could step in and save me."

Hakkai looked down, then straightened to face her, mouth firming in resolve. "I had nothing to do with the demons' presence, but I sent Jeep to lead you there, because I would never have been able to meet you otherwise. You do understand, don't you?" he pleaded.

Sanzo shook her pretty head, feeling that something was still amiss. She picked up Hakkai's home-brewed vodka and took a swig, then scratched at the itchy drying blood on her face. She stopped and stared at the flaked rust-brown specks on her hand. "It wasn't just to meet me," she said slowly, and turned to face Hakkai, who had picked up his fruit knife again and was studying her, his handsome face grim. A thrill of excitement and fear ran through her. Hakkai was so handsome! She forced herself to focus on the most important issue at hand. "I killed 998 demons. You wiped another demon's blood on me. And..."

Hakkai sliced his palm open as he stepped towards her. "Forgive me, sweet princess Sanzo. I wanted to make you like myself, so we could be together forever. Because..." He closed his eyes, then burst into song.

"_Baby, I'm so into you   
You've got that something, what can I do   
Baby, you spin me around, oh   
The earth is movin, but I can't feel the ground   
Everytime you look at me  
My heart is jumpin, it's easy to see   
Loving you means so much more   
More than anything I ever felt before _

You drive me crazy,   
I just can't sleep   
I'm so excited, I'm in too deep   
Crazy, but it feels alright   
Baby thinkin of you keeps me up all night 

Tell me, you're so into me   
That I'm the only one you will see   
Tell me I'm not in the blue, oh   
That I'm not wastin   
My feelins on you   
Loving you means so much more   
More than anything I ever felt before." 

Sanzo wiped away her tears as Hakkai stopped in front of her with his bloody palm raised. "I'm sorry, my princess. I'll give you a choice. You can become a demon and stay with me forever, or you can stay human and return to your family. I promise I will bring you home safely."

"You are a liar and a pauper, you pig," Sanzo sobbed, "but I love you. How can I love someone I've never even laid eyes on before? Give me time. I need to tell Mother that I'm going to marry you, and pack all my pretty dresses and jewellery, and a decent dowry so you can keep me in the manner in which I'm accustomed." She turned away and dabbed at her tears with her own handkerchief, because the one Hakkai gave her was already snotty from when he wiped her nose.

"I understand," said Hakkai softly, obviously thinking she was just letting him down gently. He healed his hand, and Sanzo gasped in astonishment.

"You can heal? Damn you, fix my knee already, you idiot!" She grabbed the newspaper and hit him over the head until he healed her knee. It felt tingly, and she blushed, and hit him again. "I'll be back, I promise," she said, and finally Hakkai brightened, believing her.

"I've been looking for you all my life, my darling, that's why I knew we were meant to be together from the moment I saw you. Though I did think you'd have brown hair," he mused thoughtfully, and to stop him from thinking too much about why he thought she would have brown hair, Sanzo grabbed Hakkai and kissed him, and the little Jeep flapped off his shoulder back into the chimney with a complaining _kyuu_, probably because it was underaged and shouldn't be allowed to see whatever they were planning to do next.

__

to be continued...

With lyrics from Britney Spears' _(You Drive Me) Crazy_, from her album _Baby One More Time_.

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Replies to reviews

Clevergurl:   
Aw, don't you like Monty Python? (I'm very suspicious of anyone who doesn't like BicycleRepairMan...)  
  
Whatever the story was supposed to be, I would like very much to know your opinion of what it *is*. ;-) Thanks for reviewing, nevertheless.  
  
Karcy:  
=P Too much Moonshyne is bad for yer liver. Sad as it is, this is my 'teenybop' style. No self-respect at all. Just look at Very Grimm Tales (Yu Yu Hakusho) for a comparison to my genuine teen-era fic. Eventually I'll put up my antique YYH Shakespeare parody.   
  
ImitationBarbie and H:   
You ARE TOO Purple! And Shocking Pink, and Powder Blue and Virginal White! And Neon Green and Canary Yellow and Striped and Polka Dotted and Frilly-Ruffly-Lacy and Fake-Furry! Or at least your dresses are; just look in any toy-store! The Truth Is Out There!  
  
Of course the accident is plausible. It's not AU until Minekura-sama writes differently! It's just In The Future! XD

And spoilerS, I say. You pointed out every last detail of importance in my Dastardly Plot! Argh! =P


	4. Lovers' Leap

This turned out a little longer than I expected, but what can I say? I'm a romantic.;-)

Replies to reviews at end. 

**ENDLESS LOVE**

Chapter Three: Lovers' Leap

By Princess X-S Moonshyne

Sanzo loved Hakkai's eyes, their murky depths as fathomless as an algae-choked pond in summer. You know it is as shallow as a kiddy pool, but you can't see to the bottom of it anyway. Hakkai's pretty green eyes were like that, and it made him look very enigmatic and dreamy. She thought she could stare into his eyes all day. Provided she stopped for meals and bathroom breaks, of course, and rested her eyes occasionally, but anyway, you get the idea.

Still, she found it rather unnerving to be under the unblinking regard of that fixed stare for so long. Finally, she couldn't take it any more and sat up abruptly. "Hakkai, put your eye back in your head before I shoot it," she snapped, and clicked off the safety on her gun for emphasis. 

Hakkai woke with a start and groped about the peach-pink nightstand for a moment before he found the glass eye and popped it back in its rightful place, blinking until it settled properly. 

Sanzo felt her heart melt immediately as he looked at her in hurt confusion. Hakkai was so handsome, and so sweet! She felt a little bad about threatening him, but she knew he wouldn't hold it against her, since he hadn't been upset about her kicking and hitting him with a newspaper for long. Yet she felt the faintest of misgivings, stirred by the gossip she had heard the maids whispering to each other when they thought she wasn't paying attention. Of course, he had been very nice to her, but that was before they had...Sanzo blushed, and smacked Hakkai on his head for making her think such things.

"What is it, my love?" asked Hakkai softly, all concerned, and Sanzo felt all her silly fears evaporate at once, warmed by the gentle voice she had grown to love even when he was screaming. She blushed again on realising the direction her rebellious thoughts had taken.

"I want to stay with you forever, Hakkai," she said to distract him, but meaning it nonetheless.

"And I you, dear Sanzo," he murmured, catching her milk-white hand and kissing it to keep her from hitting him some more. "Stay with me, please, sweet princess."

His plea made her tender heart twist in agony and guilt at what she knew she would have to say to him. "I- I want to, Hakkai, believe me, I really do. But I'm hungry, and my hair is all messy and itchy. You've got no food in your house except some smelly bean curd and a loaf of stale bread, and I don't think you know how to wash and put up my hair the way my maids do."

"I could go out and find a job, and learn to cook and clean and care for you," Hakkai started to protest, the sweet darling, but she put her gun to his lips to silence him.

"No, my beloved. Let me go back, and I will ask Mother for an estate and servants and loads of money so you won't have to work for a minute, and we can spend all our time together," she said, feeling very brave and sensible and selfless.

Hakkai's eyes crossed momentarily as he squinted down at the barrel of her gun, then he sighed, defeated by her logic. "You're right. You are as wise as you are beautiful. I'll bring you back to the palace, but you must promise to come back, or I shall die, and take half the population of your city with me," he vowed solemnly, looking very dark and dangerous and s- so cute! Sanzo managed to restrain her errant thoughts just in time.

"Oh, Hakkai!" Sanzo flung herself into his arms and wept. "I will come back, I promise. Then we will live happily ever after!"

The young lovers gazed soulfully into each other's eyes again, steeling themselves to set out on their way to parting, then opened the cabin door, to find the demon horde from last night outside cooking breakfast over their campfires. Sanzo uttered a little scream of surprise, and several hundred startled demons accidentally dropped the marshmallows they were toasting. There followed much blistering invective which really shouldn't have been spoken in the hearing of a genteel lady like Sanzo, much less be repeated anywhere where young and impressionable persons might learn them to use at inappropriate times, and the enraged demons sprang up, intent on killing the frightened princess and her luckless paramour.

"Hakuryuu!" shouted Hakkai, and Sanzo was hurt and confused for a moment that he would cry for his pet rather than her at a time like this. Then the mystery was solved as the little white Jeep transformed into a dark green automobile that matched Hakkai's eyes exactly (sigh!) and they jumped in. 

It was a little cramped, though, as the little Jeep was not fully grown, so they looked rather as though they were in a bumper car. Hakkai stepped on the accelerator and sent a good many demons flying, Sanzo screaming in delight at how much the whole situation was like one of those really fun arcade games where you try your best to knock over as many pedestrians as possible.

But the excitement soon wore thin as the demons kept coming, and Jeep couldn't really run that fast with the two of them. Hakkai threw his arm around Sanzo and held her close to his body, trying to shelter her from the spray of blood as she fired into the howling host.

Futile, it was all futile. Sanzo wanted to weep and rail at their cruel fate. "We've got to find some way through to your mother's city before you get hit and change," Hakkai hissed in frustration as he deliberately steered the Jeep over a particularly odious demon's toes, causing it to scream as bones audibly cracked. "Even Queen Koumyo, as much as she loves you, might take it amiss if you came back with pointy ears and a tattoo, and I couldn't forgive myself if I failed to protect you. Though I'm sure you would look very pretty and elfin like that," he hastened to add when he gazed fatuously down and saw the mistrustful glimmer of tears in Sanzo's lovely grape-jam coloured eyes. "Whatever you become, I will always love you, my dear Sanzo."

"It's all your fault we're in this mess," Sanzo sniffled into Hakkai's shirt in despair, and Hakkai, who hadn't been paying attention as he was intent on getting her to safety, sneezed. She was instantly contrite and ashamed of her selfishness. "I'm so sorry," she babbled, and looked for something to wipe his nose with before he dripped on her. But her handkerchief was already rather salty and altogether unhygienic, and she looked around for a tissue to give Hakkai when she remembered.

"Eureka!" Sanzo cried, pulling out her most useful treasure from her skirt with a flourish.

Hakkai stared at her in astonishment and drove directly over an equally shocked demon, who had been expecting only to have his toes squished. The hapless fellow would have been only marginally injured had the rest of the demons not stampeded over him immediately in the Jeep's wake. "Where did you get this?"

"I never leave home without it," she told him proudly. "It's my Magic Toilet Roll, and it never runs out! It was in my basket when Mother fished me out from the river."

"It's the Maten Sutra!" They were nearly at the city gates, but it looked like they would be overwhelmed any moment. Hakkai stopped and pushed a perplexed Sanzo to arm's length, staring deeply into her face as though he would memorise her features. "Dear Sanzo. Listen carefully. I'm going to teach you a special mantra. Repeat it after me, then run back home and don't look back no matter what happens."

"Makai ten..." 

When the Magic Toilet Roll unravelled and flung all the demons about her away, Sanzo screamed as the accursed thing snatched Hakkai from her as though it had a mind of its own, and sent him flying into the milling mass of muddy and maddened demons. But she remembered how he had looked at her when he had asked her to listen, clearly aware what would happen. Sanzo swallowed her tears, picked up her skirt and ran, her heart breaking.

**To be continued...**

_Time may take us apart, but I will still love you, I promise.   
And when the stars, stars are falling   
I'll keep calling_

I promise that you'll be my one, my only everything   
I'll never be untrue   
And I promise that for all your love I will do anything   
I will give you the stars, I will buy you the moon

Even through the longest of our nights   
And even through the darkest days   
Our love will find a way 

And when the stars are falling   
I'll keep calling   
I will still love you   
And when your dreams are fading   
I'll be waiting   
I will still love you

You were my summer breeze, my winter sun, my   
springtime soul (springtime soul), my autumn touch of gold Yeah   
And you were my sky, my rain, the earth in which my love goes strong   
The smile of my heart and the breath of my soul 

Even if we find ourselves apart   
We will hold our hopes and dreams   
Forever in our hearts 

And when the stars are falling   
I'll keep calling   
I will still love you   
And when your dreams are fading   
I'll be waiting   
I will still love you 

Tell me how you feel   
I finally know how love feels   
Tell me if its real   
And my heart tells me its real   
So real, So real 

And when the stars are falling   
I'll keep calling   
I will still love you   
And when your dreams are fading   
I'll be waiting   
I will still love you 

Time may take us apart, that's true   
But I will always be there for you   
You're in my heart, you'll be in my dreams   
No matter how many miles we've seen   
I promise you that I won't forget   
The day we kissed or the day we met   
The sky may fall and the stars may tilt   
But I will still, I will still Love you 

And when the stars are falling   
I'll keep calling   
I will still love you   
And when your dreams are fading   
I'll be waiting   
I will still love you

~ I will still love you, from Britney Spears' album, Baby One More Time.

**Replies to reviews**

Madison Azari and hagane

Thank you. Have patience, all will be revealed in good time. ;-)

Karcy

I do try. =)

H and GayBarbie

You missed the biggest blooper of all. The header for chapter two was still chapter one on account of lazy cut-and-pasting. (now fixed, nyah nyah)

Re blood: But poor sweet Sanzo was about to be overrun! That implies they were swarming pretty close, but since this is only a PG-rated fic, I left out all the gory description of splattering brains and spilling guts and other bodily-fluid projectiles. =P And besides, SIPOLRSE...

*blinkblink* But doesn't Sanzo normally hide his gun and harisen in his knickers? I'm a realist; I don't believe in hammerspace or such crock. *saintly pragmatic look*

sf

Abuse sweet Sanzo? Moi? But all I gave her was a little scratch on the knee...   
(hides scalpel and silicone)

Re my state of mind: Er, how about a choose-your-own-adventure answer?

The writer obviously...

(a) has a split-personality who likes gags.  
(b) is bi-polar.   
(c) has a not-very-secret fetish for cross-dressing Sanzo.   
(d) is in love with Hakkai and writing a wish-fulfillment canon-MS.   
(e) has recently suffered a debilitating head injury.   
(f) has overindulged in moonshine.   
*g* is best quietly forgotten with judicious application of goodfic. ^_^  
(h) is impressionable and easily led astray by bad friends. =P  
(i) was born under the influence of sunny La Luna with all the tics associated with that lucky sign.   
j/k is some, all and/or none of the above. ^_~


	5. On thy cold grey stones

*sniffle* This is a little (okay, very) short, because I can't bear to think of poor Sanzo and Hakkai parted, and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad things that happen to sweet Sanzo in the meantime. I just can't write it. *sobs* Thanks for reviewing. Replies at the end.

****

ENDLESS LOVE

Chapter Four: On thy cold grey stones*

By Princess X-S Moonshyne 

_Calling out your name   
Your face is everywhere   
I'm reaching out to you   
To find that you're not there   
I wake up every night   
To see the state I'm in   
It's like an endless fight   
I never seem to win_

She sang in the moonlight, played the piano through the day, sang in the shower and cursed all the way, playing melancholy songs of loss and parting on the piano until the servants all believed that the poor princess had been driven mad by sorrow, and finally even the mellow Queen Koumyo could bear it no longer.

"Dear child," said the Queen gently, puffing thoughtfully on her pipe and smiling abstractedly into the air as the smoke rings she blew dissolved. "Would you like me to engage you a music teacher, or perhaps, a voice coach? You've been practising so hard, but I'm sure you will sound a lot better with a little training. It's hard on the servants, you know, having to sweep up so much crystal everyday. And the steward would tear his hair out over the cost of replacing them, if only he had hair to tear." She blinked and smiled at a new thought. "Or, if you really don't want lessons, I'm sure we can find some record company willing to sign you up, and you can do your singing in a soundproof studio. We might even make a profit off it."

Princess Sanzo ignored her, and squeezed her eyes shut as she hit the keyboard with all her strength. "I can't go on as long as I believe...Can't let go when I keep wondering..."

_Where are you now, what have you found   
Where is your heart, when I'm not around   
Where are you now, you gotta let me know   
Oh baby, so I can let you go_

Queen Koumyo pursed her lips thoughtfully. Ever since Sanzo's misadventure on that ill-starred ride in the country, the demon hordes ravaging their pretty countryside had either been very much subdued, or perhaps reduced, and she was able to correspond with her good friend King Goku once more via the slow but always reliable E(lephant) Mail instead of using telegraphs, which were such a waste of paper and ink, and it was truly a pain having to draw pictures big enough for Goku to see from his mountain castle. Also, he had the unfortunate tendency to misinterpret everything as having to do with food, like that time she had complained about the cloudy weather making her joints ache, which he responded to by sending her an enormous stick of cotton candy and a box of candy canes. 

Obviously what Goku needed was a sensible wife to run the kingdom for him, and since Sanzo (now wailing _I should let it out, it's time to let you go!_) seemed about ready to let go of her most unsuitable suitor... The Queen smiled, and thought it was time for her to expand her kingdom.

Thus was the poor princess betrothed unwittingly and unwillingly to the unsuspecting King Goku, bringing us back to where we started.

Princess Sanzo wished very much that she wasn't a princess, trying to hold in her tears as she paced her room. If only she hadn't tried so hard to be sensible and asked Hakkai to bring her back. If only she had thought of trying out a simple life as an ordinary peasant, growing vegetables and tending chickens with Hakkai. If only, if only, if only. Her stomach twisted in sudden agony at the renewed pain, and Sanzo leaned over the window sill and heaved in shock, dimly thinking that it should be her heart aching, not her gut, as she swooned and fortunately fell to the ground rather than over the railing. 

Someone yelled "WTF?!" below, and another cried, "It's the princess!" The stone floor was cold and uncaring, and Sanzo knew no more.

****

To be continued...

__

Where are you now, from Britney Spears' album **Oops, I did it again**.

* From _Break, Break, Break_ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 

The complete text can be found here: 

www.online-literature.com/tennyson/709

Replies to reviews

hagane   
^^ Thanks. 

sf   
^_^ What's wrong with being a girl? 

> No option (j) is absolutely and criminally insane? ^_^  
I thought that was covered by (i) La Luna's tics, unless you want to make a distinction in terms of degree. XD

X-parrot  
*peers around curiously* You still reading? Aw, give poor Hakkai a break, it's a big city, you know. Halfway through he'll die of exhaustion or get killed. Hakkai's a realist. ^_^

Karcy  
Hee. Glad you liked. 

H  
*prim and proper* I don't snort stuff, I smoke'em. Passively, at that. *coughcoughcough* Symbolism? Eek! Hentai! Sanzo's gun is entirely literal (if only because she doesn't have the metaphorical one), and besides, she didn't put it _in_ his mouth. XP


	6. Not A Girl

*_Break for a totally unrelated note_* I love monkeys! Sarusarusaru! Monkeys Rule! Thanks for reviewing. Replies at end. 

****

ENDLESS LOVE

Chapter Five: Not A Girl

By Princess X-S Moonshyne

Sanzo woke to the softness of satin sheets and a cold, clammy hand resting gently on her wrist. "Oh Hakkai," she breathed in dreamy hope as she caught at the hand and opened her eyes to see the dreadful leer of that horrible pervert Doctor Nii. "Impudent slimeball!" she screeched and kicked his chair over as she leapt out of bed, ready to defend her chastity. 

"You will die for this, you presumptuous slave!" Sanzo snarled as she levelled her gun at the blinking doctor, and suffered from a sudden urgent craving for pickles. "What have you done to me? Where is the pickle jar?!"

Doctor Nii calmly remained sitting where he had landed and dusted off his fallen bunny fastidiously. "As you can see, Your Majesty, the princess is pregnant. Her pulse confirms it."

"Oh dear," sighed the Queen, blowing another smoke ring as she flipped a brightly coloured folded paper plane out the window, though she might well have been referring to the way the plane caught the wind for just a moment, and nose-dived immediately after. One could never quite tell with the Queen.

"P-pregnant?" Sanzo felt faint, and stuffed a fistful of pickles into her mouth. She pressed her other hand to her flat stomach, thinking of how much she had wanted to have Hakkai's child for so long after he disappeared. Two long years of longing... "How-how can it be?"

Doctor Nii looked disgustingly pleased with himself, or perhaps amused at her consternation. "There aren't that many human-demon crossbreeds that we know exactly how these things work...though the child is growing apace now that it seems to have decided to grow. You can probably expect to have a bouncing baby quite conveniently soon, so it won't affect your figure for long. Congratulations, princess." He bowed out of the chamber as Sanzo scowled a fearsome yet very pretty scowl and fired off a few shots after him.

Though her more trigger-happy instincts were still functioning perfectly, in her heart the poor princess could only gape like a fish, or a kappa, as her father was reputed to be. "I-Hakkai's baby-" she stammered, but her cleverness soon reasserted itself. "Never mind. Mother," she appealed as soon as the door closed behind the horrid doctor. "Surely I cannot marry Goku now that I'm pregnant. You must call the wedding off."

Queen Koumyo waved a languid hand in airy dismissal. "What are you saying, my dear daughter, of course you must marry Goku and quickly, before your stomach starts to show. Think of your good name! Besides, the baby needs a father. You will get ready for the wedding tomorrow." So saying, the Queen wandered off in search of more coloured paper to fold.

Sanzo covered her face with her delicate hands, giving in briefly to her despair. But she soon composed herself again. She was strong, and she was also cleverer and braver than her dear Hakkai. As the princess began stuffing a backpack with sensible clothes and jewellery, adding a jar of pickles at the last moment, she sang with fresh determination, and her mother's spies squeaked and fled, assuming she was safely absorbed in mourning once more.

"_Ohh my love, ohh yeaa, ohh yeaa...I'm sitting here alone up in my room and thinking about the times that we've been through (oh my love)..._"* 

She put on the white robes of a monk and her favourite leather bodysuit underneath because she couldn't bear to leave it behind. The Magic Toilet R-no, Maten Sutra, she corrected herself, remembering the look on Hakkai's face when she had taken it out... _So cute!_ she draped across her shoulders for convenient access just in case she should meet another overwhelming swarm of demons. Her long, shining hair, bright and golden as freshly fried french fries, she hid with the headdress of a high-ranking monk, which would also make people avoid her in case she wanted to preach at them. 

Thus did the princess set off down along the river, humming softly to herself.

__

There is no need to protect me  
Its time that I  
Learn to face up to this on my own**

Unfortunately, Sanzo didn't manage to get very far before she saw the guards milling about and pouring out the palace gates. Her absence had been noticed! She lowered her head in apparent humility and picked up her pace, trying to slip past them unobtrusively, but that was so unlike a real Sanzo like she was pretending to be that everyone turned to stare, and sure enough, someone exclaimed, "That's the princess!" and the rest took up the cry immediately after, whether they recognised her or not.

Sanzo cursed and fired a few shots into the crowd to make them fall back, and began to run.

She was panting like a dog and had a stitch in her side like Hakkai had just stabbed her with his fruit knife when she got to the bridge, exhausted to the brink of collapse. And still the voices were behind her, and getting closer. Sanzo sobbed in pain and frustration as she looked over the side of the bridge at the muddy river below, thinking that she would rather die and see her dear Hakkai again than go back and marry King Goku, whom she despised utterly for the gigantic pork bun he'd sent her as a gift on her sixteenth birthday, though they had never met.

"Please don't feed the trolls," said an insouciant voice very close behind her, and Sanzo screamed and nearly shot the kappa who had spoken, who looked friendly and very handsome in spite of his incredibly silly hot-pink tresses.

"Who are you?" she demanded shakily, pointing her gun at him. "What do you mean?"

The kappa smiled and preened under her glare as though it was a look of admiration...though it was, really, because he was so very handsome (but not as handsome as Hakkai, of course). "Don't feed the trolls," he repeated, his voice almost a purr. "It only encourages them. I am the Horny Kappa of the muddy Kappa River, at your service, fair maiden."

To be sure, Sanzo was no maiden, though she was fair, but it wasn't why she shot the Horny Kappa the instant he revealed his identity, nor was it the electrafying frisson of excitement his voice sent down her spine, though it was a consideration as well. Sanzo dropped her gun and kicked him as well for good measure. 

"You worthless kappa! You abandoned me! What kind of father are you?" Sanzo wailed, kicking the groaning kappa, desolate. "It's all your fault Mother is forcing me to marry the food-obsessed King Goku, and I have to run away from home! Stupid kappa! Take that, and that!"

The poor kappa groaned again, and mumbled something unintelligible through his blood for a moment before he spat it out and gasped, "Daughter- I was going to tell you- you don't have to marry... to...I fished out...H-H-" He closed his eyes and didn't finish. 

Sanzo grabbed him, shaking him violently. "What, what did you say?" But the kappa was still and silent, and Sanzo wept.

It was in this attitude that the guards who arrived puffing shortly after found the princess, still lamenting over the bloody kappa. They rolled the body into the river and took her back to the palace, and in the morning, the princess was trussed up in the sedan chair, bound for Flower Fruit Mountain to meet her groom.

  
**To be continued...**

Lyrics

* _Born to make you happy_, from Britney Spears' album **Baby One More Time**.

** _I'm not a girl, not yet a woman_, from Britney Spears' album **Britney**.  


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Replies to reviews

H

*squints* How about a flute? But isn't a pain-o the standard instrument of choice?


	7. Reunion

Do I have better things to do? Does the earth revolve around the sun? H, what do you mean have my pupils met in the middle yet? Weren't they always (star-)crossed? XP

****

ENDLESS LOVE

Chapter Six: Reunion

By Princess X-S Moonshyne 

Princess Sanzo was unspeakably relieved to see that King Goku looked nothing at all like the monstrous, drooling blob of lard her most nightmarish girlish imaginings had painted him as. He was even a little cute, in an irritatingly perky way; no more than an exuberant boy with bright, sunny eyes to match his brainlessly cheerful grin and a tousled mop of spiky brown hair that all but concealed his golden crown.

He looked nothing like she had expected, but she still hated him on first sight. "Can we eat the wedding cake now?" were his first words of greeting when she climbed out from the sedan, shrugging off her ropes and kicking the impertinent guards who had dared tie her up.

Before she could gather herself to reply, she felt a tug on her pride and joy, the long, shining tresses of french-fry coloured hair, and spun around to see King Goku looking guilty with chewed-off locks of her precious hair dangling from his mouth. He spat it out quickly as she felt the blood haze creeping over her vision and roaring fury in her ears. 

"It looked so much like french-fries I had to try it!" blurted the accursed food-obsessed monkey as she advanced on him with her Exorcist Gun gripped tightly in shaking hands. 

"My hair...the split ends...You...YOU HAVE MADE ME PREGNANT!" she shrilled on a flash of inspiration, mindful of Queen Koumyo's injunction to blame Goku for her pregnancy as soon as decently possible.

King Goku gawked at her in helpless astonishment. "That can't be possible! I thought people only become pregnant when they- er... sleep together?"

Sanzo had to revise her mental estimate of his intelligence, but decided there was enough uncertainty in his voice to push the issue. "It's ALL YOUR FAULT!" she screeched, and to prove her point, retched noisily and noisomely (the result of too many pickles) on his marble floor. As if whatever stars were watching over her approved, her stomach also bloated most propitiously and she cursed her hapless groom with much spirit as she toppled over from the sudden change in her centre of gravity. 

King Goku quickly called for doctors to come to her aid, but clearly didn't believe her quite up to the moment when she gave birth to a squalling red-faced baby boy with soft golden-brown hair like overcooked hashbrowns and eyes the sort of mouldy looking grey-green colour you get when you mix grape-jam purple like Sanzo's eyes with algae green like Hakkai's eyes. 

Anyway, once the baby had made its presence very much seen and heard, breaking some of the fine crystal in very much the same way as its mother, King Goku could no longer deny his liability, and assented to take them all into his home, though he had the tendency to hide behind a curtain every time Sanzo entered a room, from which refuge he would stare at her fearfully, obviously convinced she was some kind of freak. 

Nevertheless, he did assign her a maid to help care for the baby; a pleasant and strikingly pretty young woman with long brown hair and green eyes that reminded her of Hakkai. The maid smiled sweetly and managed to soothe both mother and child effectively, anticipating their needs and knowing when Sanzo wanted to be alone to daydream about Hakkai.

The jittery distance her husband kept from her also pleased Sanzo greatly, and she cooed over the baby, wondering if Goku would finally catch on if she named the baby Hakkai Junior after her darling Hakkai, or if she should keep to the better part of valour and call it something less obvious, perhaps Jyuichiro or Hakuryuu (oh, what had happened to the cute little Jeep that had brought them together?). 

But even such meagre happiness was not to last. As the poor princess mused happily over her and Hakkai's love-child on a grey, cloudy day with little to recommend it but the fact that King Goku was making himself very busy elsewhere, anywhere but where she was, there came terrible screams from below, as though someone was butchering a lot of chickens in anticipation of her baby's first-month celebrations. 

Sanzo stood and gasped as Hakkai burst through the door brandishing his fruit knife, bloody and grim and so very sexy (it's a little late to be prudish when you've already had his illegitimate child, she chided herself as she started to blush at the thought). "Hakkai," she breathed in wonder, hardly daring to believe her eyes. "You did come back for me."

He did not smile, nor did his eyes soften when he looked upon their baby. "So it is true then," he said as he advanced on them.

Sanzo began to feel the first inkling of fear and confusion , backing away from him though all she wanted to do was throw herself into his arms and weep for joy. "What is true?"

"That you married someone else and had a child!" he cried in anguish, ripping the baby away from her arms that had gone slack with shock. "How could you?" Hakkai shook his head slowly as tears slid down his face, and defenestrated the baby.

"That's OUR baby, you idiot!" she screeched, and smashed the nearest vase she could find over his head, hoping the cold water would shock him back to his senses.

"Oh." Hakkai stared out the window, the colour draining from his face. "Ours..?" He looked so lost and shattered, as if he had lost all reason he had for living, that Sanzo felt her heart breaking with his and forgave him instantly.

"Oh, Hakkai," she wept, embracing his rain-and-vase-soaked, chilled body. "It doesn't matter anymore now that you're back. I haven't even named the baby, and we can always have more," she assured him, cupping his beautiful face in her slim hands to make sure he was paying attention to her. "I'm so glad you've come back to me." 

"Dear Sanzo," he said fervently, placing his hands over hers and gazing passionately into her eyes, "I will never let us be parted again, my beloved." He squinted a little at her hair, as if bemused by the split ends left from Goku's sampling.

"Hakkai, dear Hakkai," she murmured.

"Hakkai?" They started and broke apart from instinctive propriety, having never been together in public. It was the maid, who had come back with a bottle of warm milk for the baby. The bottle fell to the floor and shattered. She and Hakkai stared at each other in shock, and Sanzo was again struck by their resemblance. They could have been siblings.

"Kanan," Hakkai whispered in a daze, as though waking from a long nightmare. "It is you... I have been searching for you all my life..." 

Kanan, the maid, who really was quite plain and ugly now that Sanzo had time to look at her without the distraction of the baby, however much the girl resembled her handsome Hakkai, raised her hands to her mouth, eyes shimmering with crocodile tears, the sly, husband-stealing incestuous bitch. "Hakkai, is it really you?"

Hakkai stepped away from Sanzo and towards Kanan with a look of wonder on his face that should have been reserved for Sanzo. "Kanan..."

The fated lovers embraced, weeping for their long separation. "NO!" Sanzo howled, heartbroken. She emptied her gun into his back, and wept as the rain fell down and splashed through the open window, misting over Hakkai and Kanan's lifeless bodies.

__

Oh baby, baby  
The reason I breathe is you  
Boy you got me blinded 

Oh pretty baby  
There's nothing that I wouldn't do  
It's not the way I planned it

~ Britney Spears **Baby One More Time**

****

The end 

(But it's not over yet. Epilogue to come.)


	8. epilogue

Credits and replies at the end. Thanks to everyone who put up with me so far for their patience. 

And a small warning: This is where the story earns its fantasy category in an altogether wrong sense.

****

ENDLESS LOVE

Epilogue  
by queasy, which is the natural result of excess moonshine

...he remembered falling. 

He was cold, and stinging cold droplets beaded on his cheeks like tears.

He remembered falling, and Jeep crying. He was cold, chilled down to the bone, and he felt no reason to move.

Warm air huffed over his face, and voices - _when will he wake? Won't he be hungry? - looks even more sour than he normally does _- a rough laugh that smelled of beer and cigarettes.

A shadow fell over the faint red glow that told him his eyes were shut and there was light. The cold raindrops stopped splattering on him. - _Why didn't you two close the windows? Go out, let him sleep - tch, it's his fault -_

The voices were familiar, and for a moment he could not yet remember who he was, or why he lay there. He did not feel ready to open his eyes, but he was remembering.

He was falling, and Jeep cried; the steering wheel twisted in his hands in seeming revolt as they careened down the rocky cliffside. He remembered the icy shock of cold water that slammed the breath from his lungs and cut off Goku's yells, drowning Gojyo's half-hysterical curses in gurgles, and the sharp white flare of agony in his head.

He remembered a bruising grip on his arm and being dragged through water, and a quiet voice cutting momentarily through the haze of pain with dispassionate emphasis - _I drove Jeep down a cliff once, but it was deliberate and controlled. You are never -_

Opening his eyes cautiously, he could see Hakkai pouring a cup of something foul-smelling, probably aware that he was awake. Hakkai was in an uncharacteristic state of dishabille, his shirt untucked and his shoulders hunched. Then he turned slightly and Sanzo saw that he had one hand under the rucked-up shirt, pressed against his side where the bullet had penetrated to reach the insane false Sanzo. The smell of fresh blood from the reopened wound hung in the air.

"Your medicine is ready," said Hakkai, his normally mild tones clipped and precise. A loaded silence passed between them. He set the cup of medicine on the night-stand by the bed. "We lost some of our supplies in the river. We will have a new wardrobe on your account." With an air of grim finality, Hakkai left the room, closing the door behind him.

****

Reload

* * *

****

Credits 

**MS-Gena**, credited with inspiration and most of Chapter 1, is the Middle-Earth **M**ary **S**ue **Gen**er**a**tor at imladris.nu/claudio/instasue.html . 

I posted the results to my blog, whereupon H the Perverse asked if I was going to continue the story, and Karcy of the Woefully Good Memory said, "This reminds me of that time you talked about a Sanzo Sue playing the piano..." I said musical? they said ok! So I took the results, fiddled and added parts, and the rest is history as you see it. XP

****

Replies

H  
Pfft. Since when has Sanzo done anything halfway? 

X-parrot  
Thanks! You have to thank UltraM2000 for "defenestrate" though, I flubbed the spelling. And I'm very fond of (or obsessed with) that knife too. =) UltraM2000  
Thank you! You saved me from myself! And also thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt on the MS-Gena part. ;-) Re: fangirlism, Sanzo is Hakkai's fangirl, I'd say...at least for this incarnation. =P fye chan   
But Princess Sanzo's supposed to be so pretty! *sobs* And Sanzo did marry Goku after all. You can say she went back to him after killing faithless Hakkai if you like. =P I like Sanzo and Hakkai better though. Thanks for reviewing. Karcy   
I am shocked and appalled, I tell you. This is absolutely news to me. Do I, really? O_O 


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